1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a material distributor, as well as a system and method for de-gassing a material by distributing the material as a thin film onto a wall of a chamber, while a vacuum (i.e., a reduced absolute pressure) is maintained in the chamber.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
There are several manufacturing processes that require degassing of a fluid (i.e., the removal of entrained air or other gasses from the fluid). One such manufacturing process relates to ignition coils. It is known to encase an ignition coil in a 2-part silicone material. Proper operation of the coil, however, depends to a large extent on the vacuum integrity of the silicone material. It is therefore very important to remove the entrained air or other gasses from the silicone material.
The removal of entrained air or other gasses, in the past, has been performed using mechanically active devices (i.e., devices having moving pairs). Examples of such devices include slinger plates, conical sections, and/or motorized Archimedes screws. These devices, however, can be relatively complex and expensive to implement. Often they are provided in such a way that the material being degassed cannot be viewed, making it difficult to visually verify the performance of the degassing function. At least some of these mechanically active devices require frequent maintenance and are potentially subject to mechanical failure. Some also are difficult to implement in such a way that the material is degassed at substantially the same rate as it is used. The de-gassing therefore is often performed in batches, rather than xe2x80x9con-the-fly.xe2x80x9d
There is consequently a need for a more passive way and system of degassing a fluid material (i.e. a system and method that does not require moving parts). Since it is desirable to degas the material xe2x80x9con the flyxe2x80x9d at a rate that is substantially equal to the rate at which the material is being used, there is need in the art for a degassing system and method that does not require batch-based preformance of the degassing process. The need for a de-gassing method and system also extends to one that does not require expensive parts, frequent maintenance, and/or comber plicated moving parts.
Also, inasmuch as it is often desirable to view the material being degassed so that the degassing effect can be visually verified, there is a need in the art for a degassing system and method that can be implemented in a visually transparent vessel or a vessel having visually transparent parts.
It is a primary object of the present invention to overcome at least one of the foregoing problems and/or to satisfy at least one of the aforementioned needs by providing a more practical, less expensive, more reliable, visually verifiable, more passive, and/or less complicated system and/or method for degassing a fluid material , and/or a fluid distributor for use in a material degassing process.
To a achieve this and other objects and advantages, the present invention provides a system for de-gassing a material. The system comprises a vessel and a material distributor. The vessel has an internal chamber in which a vacuum can be maintained. The material distributor is located inside the internal chamber and is adapted to distribute the material to be degassed as a thin film along at least one wall of the vessel in such a way that exposure of the thin film to vacuum within the internal chamber causes entrained air or other gasses from the material to be withdrawn from the thin film.
Also provided by the present invention is a method for degassing a material. The method comprises the steps of distributing a material as a thin film onto at least one wall of a chamber, and maintaining a vacuum in the chamber so that exposure of the thin film to the vacuum causes entrained air or other gasses from the material to be withdrawn from the thin film.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a material distributor can be provided for insertion into a vessel where degassing of a material is to be performed. The material distributor comprises an inlet for the material to be degassed, a sealing lip, a film-forming lip, and a material distribution cavity. The sealing lip is adapted to sealingly engage at least one wall of the vessel. The film-forming lip is spaced apart from the scaling lip. The material distribution cavity is defined between the sealing lip and the film-forming lip, and is in fluid communication with the inlet. The film-forming lip is positioned with respect to the scaling lip so that when the sealing lip sealingly engages wall(s) of the vessel, the film-forming lip is positioned with respect to the wall(s) in such a way that the material to be degassed exits the material distribution cavity by passing as a thin film between the film-forming lip and the wall(s).
Still other objects, advantages, and features of the present invention will become more readily apparent when reference is made to the accompanying drawing and the associated description contained herein.